1. Field
The present disclosure herein relates to a semiconductor device and a method of fabricating the same, and more particularly, to a three-dimensional semiconductor memory device and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the electronic industry has advanced to a high level, integration density of semiconductor devices has increased. Higher integration density of semiconductor devices is an important factor in determining product price. In other words, as integration density of semiconductor devices increases, product prices of semiconductor devices may decrease. Accordingly, a requirement for higher integration density of semiconductor devices is increasing. Typically, since integration density of semiconductor devices is mainly determined by an area occupied by a unit memory cell, integration may be greatly influenced by a degree of pattern miniaturization, i.e., a level of fine pattern forming technology. However, pattern miniaturization may be limited due to extremely expensive semiconductor equipments and/or difficulties in semiconductor fabrication processes.
To overcome such a limitation, there have been recently proposed three-dimensional semiconductor memory devices. However, conventional three-dimensional semiconductor memory devices may require unstable processing and/or may exhibit low product reliability.